BINUS Festival Internationalization Session: Green Transport and Climate Action

BINUS University welcomed His Excellency Owen Jenkins, the British Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor-Leste on a virtual international seminar at this semester’s BINUS Festival. On this occasion, Ambassador Jenkins presented a lecture titled “Green Transport and Climate Action”. The lecture was held on Friday, May 21, 2021, and was attended by over 400 BINUS first-year students.  

CEO of Bina Nusantara Group, Bapak Bernard Gunawan was present at the seminar to give opening remarks. During his speech, he emphasized the importance of sustainable development goals and higher education, and how BINUS University has supported and contributed to the realization of SDGs in Indonesia. 

Other BINUS University leaders, President of BINUS Higher Education Bapak Stephen Santoso and BINUS Global Director Dr. Diah Wihardini joined the session as well. After the opening remarks from Bapak Bernard Gunawan, Dr. Diah Wihardini as the moderator went forward by introducing Ambassador Jenkins to the audience. 

In this lecture, Ambassador Jenkins focused on two important aspects of SDGs, green transport as part of the infrastructure and innovation, as well as climate action. The two shared some importance in the idea of innovation and technological progress to achieve change in society. To start, he shared about the work that has been done in London to contribute to the climate issue in attempt to make the capital a zero-carbon city by 2050. 

After sharing about the work in London, Ambassador Jenkins then proceed to mention the global work that the UK has been doing to tackle climate issues, including leading the COP26, the next big climate summit that will take place next November this year. 

Ambassador Jenkins then stressed how universities have important roles in the way forward in addressing the issue. Therefore, to close his lecture, Ambassador Jenkins talked about UK and Indonesia partnership and initiatives in the area of human resources development and education, specifically through the Chevening scholarship scheme.

The seminar was then followed by a Q&A session and discussion. Students were mostly interested in discussing about the alternative sources of energy that has been used in London as and how it will sustain in the future.